


You Make Me Whole

by dirtylittlegreasemonkey



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Canon Compliant, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-11
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-06-26 00:04:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15651672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dirtylittlegreasemonkey/pseuds/dirtylittlegreasemonkey
Summary: Based on the episodes around the proposal and engagement party. Off screen conversations that fit with canon exploring friends and family's reactions to Aaron and Robert's relationship and engagement.





	You Make Me Whole

**Author's Note:**

> Includes Seb and scenes with him and Aaron. Avoid the last section if it's not for you.

 

**Cain and Chas**

 

It takes a moment for Cain to clock them when he traipses in through the pub door. But there they are in the corner, love’s young dream, all conspiratorial smiles and lingering touches on the arm and knee. Aaron says something and Liv makes a vomiting motion, which is exactly how Cain feels right about now.

“Two pints please Chas,” he says, dragging himself up onto a bar stool.

“Moira joining you?”

“Eh?”

She waggles two glasses at him.

“No,” he says. “They’re both for me. After the day I’ve had, I need ‘em.”

Chas’s smile shatters. “It’s not Sarah, is it?”

“No, no. Nothing like that. Put it this way, I had the customer from hell in the morning, Ross doing my head in, Dan being a total layabout and then I get this phonecall this afternoon…”

He looks over to them in the corner and Robert looks up, gives a tight, sheepish smile and looks down again. Chas finally cottons on.

“Ah.”

“There’s all this shushing and giggling going on in the background and then he clears his throat and says ‘Cain, _mate_ , it’s Aaron, I’m stuck in this lay-by off the bypass. The car’s run out of petrol, can you pick us up?’” – Cain’s impression is dead on, even if he does say so himself.

He doesn’t fill her in on the exact details of what came next – because no mother should have to hear it about their own son – but he remembers it in detail. The scarring wet sound and Robert not-quite-whispering to Aaron: _Tell him to pick us up in a half hour_ , the sounds of a distracted Aaron laughing and trying to push Robert off and then a definite, definite sound of a belt buckle just before they hung up. Cain wasn’t going anywhere near the backseat of that Porsche ever again, not even for double rate.

It didn’t get any better when he drove there to tow them either. He’d left it an hour, wanting to be on the safe side and wanting to avoid any sights, but when he parked up there was no sign of them waiting in the car or by the side of it. He tried calling Aaron’s mobile, and Sugden’s but it wasn’t until a few minutes later they emerged out from behind the trees, Aaron flaming scarlet from the ears up. His fly was still undone and Robert’s hair looked like he’d lost something in a hedgerow and stuck his head in for good measure.

Then he had to sit next to them, squashed together on the front seat of the truck.

“You can get arrested for stuff like that, you know,” he’d said to Aaron, just loud enough to be heard over the radio. But Robert wasn’t paying much attention, head in his phone.

“Don’t post it yet,” Aaron said to Robert, in a soft way that didn’t seem all that right coming from Aaron’s mouth. “I want to tell everyone ourselves. Proper surprise everyone.”

“What’s the surprise then?” Cain asked.

“I wanted to tell my mum first.”

Cain side-eyes Robert, managing half a death stare even with his eyes on Robblesfield Way.

“We’re getting married,” Robert says, tutting when Aaron knocks him across the chest.

“Yeah? You’ve already done that bit.”

“Well, we wanted to do it again. Properly this time. Special day, taking our time, certificates. The lot. We want to make it official. For us and the whole family.” Aaron looked kind of proud saying all that.

Chas plants her hands on her hips, her sympathies gone now that she knows Cain was the first to know.

“I can’t believe he told you first. I’m his mother.”

Cain buries his eyeroll behind his first pint, watching as Robert detaches himself from Aaron and heads to the gents.

“Do you want me to go after him and give him the talk?” Cain says, pointing his head in the direction of the toilets.

“Think that’s Paddy’s job, isn’t it?” Chas says, serious until they both can’t hold it anymore, and laugh big-bellied Dingle guffaws. “It was sort of sweet really, he came and asked us for permission.”

“I hope you made him grovel.”

Chas shrugs a bit. She’s softened lately for obvious reasons. He only wished it didn’t come with so much pain. “I believe him. There’s no one that loves my boy like he does. Sometimes I think Aaron’s mad, but you only have to see them together, Cain.”

“I’ve seen enough of that today already,” Cain says. “I suppose we’re stuck with him now, aren’t we?”

 

* * *

 

 

**Vic and Matty**

 

“Not here to ask for my superb acting skills again, are you? Because I’ll tell you now, I’m a busy woman and there’s only so much fraud I can expose in one week.”

Vic takes a little look upwards from the pasta sauce to see Matty hop onto the counter in front of her. He swings his legs a bit and it sort of reminds her of when they were at school, sitting on the wall outside the canteen bitching about other girls they hated and rating boys they fancied. Vic’s scores were always much higher. Guess it made sense now. Vic gets a strange sort of flutter at the pit of her stomach when Matty smiles at her like he’s smiling now, head tilted to the side.

“Actually I was wondering if you’d make me some tea. Only I’m starving and Mum’s doing this whole special night in for Cain tonight cos he’s had a rough day or something.”

“Oh yeah,” she says. “Heard about that.”

“So…will you?”

Vic sighs theatrically and points to her head. “Do I have mug written here or what?”

Matty leans in, pretending to concentrate. He smells good. Like ginger and citrus. And Vic starts to panic, thinking she’s all shiny with chip fat and backs away from him, umming and ahhing as she makes her way to the fridge and gives him his options. He goes for gammon and chips in the end and she nicks a few of the bigger, crunchier chips for taste testing while he stays and watches her cook.

“What did I miss earlier? When I arrived Chas was polishing off a bottle of fizz.”

“Oh right! I forgot to say, yeah – well it’s my brother, Robert-“

“Blond. Always looks sort of stressed.”

“Yup, you’ve seen him. Well him and Aaron got engaged today. Again.”

“I thought you said they were already married?”

“Well they are. Sort of.” Vic sighs, winding her hands around as if she’s unravelling a long and complicated story. “They had this whole vow ceremony thing but it wasn’t official and then…well they both had a rough year, but now they’re doing it again. Properly this time.”

Matty starts pointing in the air with a chip as he clears his mouth. “You still haven’t really told me how it all started. It’s hardly changed are here, but Aaron? He actually _smiles_ now.”

Vic laughs. “It’s nice though, to see him happy.”

“Gives hope to us all, eh?” Matty says, holding her gaze just a little too long for comfort.

She swerves it. “Yeah, and you know, Rob’s really lucky to have him. If you’d have known my brother you’d have never in a million years had him down as this proper settled family man.”

“They seem pretty sorted.” Matty shrugs. “I’ve seen Aaron around, I just haven’t really said anything in case he got all weird on me.”

“He’s chilled out a lot since you last saw him. Grown up too.”

“We all have,” Matty says and then gives Vic a pointed, teasing look. “Some of us more than others.”

She whips him with the end of her tea towel all grubby still from the oven handle, ignoring his complaints of _eurgh gerroff_.

“It must be nice,” Matty says, almost dreamily. “To come back home and find The One.”

 

* * *

 

 

**Nicola and Jimmy and Bernice and Faith**

 

Nicola elbows Jimmy out the way to cut herself a slice of cake. It’s funny how he backs off as soon as she’s got a knife in her hand.

“I don’t think much to the vol-au-vents, do you?” Bernice says, covering her mouth so that Marlon doesn’t hear.

“You’re not meant to be here for the food, Bernice. You’re meant to be here to bask in the glow of love. Or something.”

“It’s a bit difficult to do that when Chas told me to leave my Daz at home. Said he’d bring the mood down. The cheek of it!”

Nicola is grateful for the forkful of cake she can load into her mouth before she has to defend Daz. She’s never met a man more deserving of the title ‘mood killer’ than that mop-top. Faith interrupts thankfully, waving a freshly opened bottle of prosecco and Nicola thrusts out her glass for a top up as soon as she sees it’s the good stuff.

“Found it in Robert’s stash,” Faith says with a wink. Nicola guessed it was too good to be Dingle-bought. “But seeing as he’s family, he won’t mind.”

“It’s nice to see someone’s got some taste.”

“I don’t know,” Jimmy says, hiding his belch behind a sausage roll. “That Whingles is alright stuff.”

Nicola hears an appreciative noise from Zak and groans as Jimmy and him raise bottles for a distant “cheers” motion. Nicola’s tasted the stuff and she reckons you could find better tasting bleach if you only gave it a swig.

“Taste?!” Bernice says, holding out her glass until Faith has filled it to the top. “Hardly. Didn’t he sleep with you?”

Nicola stamps (her good leg) and just hits the sweet spot of Bernice’s toes, gritting her teeth at her. Normally, in other circumstances, she’d hold a smug pride in this achievement, the one that made him. She popped his cherry, unleashed the beast. Etc etc etc. But he was all bones and polyester shirts back then, thought a G-spot was found on a games console. It was hardly anything to write home about. She was lonely, he was a bit of a desperate virgin. Cute, obviously, because it’s hard not to be when you’re still all wide-eyed and obsessed with breasts. But it’s only memorable in the sense she doesn’t hate his guts (quite likes him sometimes) and now she knows he swings both ways. Always make the anecdote more interesting in hindsight.

“Oh no,” Jimmy says, groaning. “Time for me to circulate.”

She doesn’t know what Jimmy’s moaning about. He got funny about it one time, one time when she shared candidly over breakfast that she’d had a rather funny (mildly erotic) dream about Robert where she’d interrupted him and Aaron going at it (in the scrapyard of all places) and all she wanted to know was the details on the latest accounts. He can’t be jealous. Robert is a cocky twat at the best of times and as if she could tolerate that for any length of time. Aaron is a saint.

“You?!” Faith says, her ruby lips open and aghast. She has that look of a stunned puppet, when there’s no hand stuffed up its backside. “With Robert?” She mouths the last part, as if it’s some big scandalous recent secret.

“Half a century ago,” Nicola says, waving her glass around. She’s saying more than she should, perhaps she’d drunk more than she remembered?

“Nicola _deflowered_ him,” Bernice says.

“Do you have to be so disgusting?”

Nicola wishes her sister would shut up for a change. She isn’t even sure if Aaron knows. Clearly he knows all about Robert’s lady-loving, but the whos and hows might be strictly on a need to know.

Faith elbows Nicola in the side, making a spray of crumbs fall off her plate now that she is trying to juggle that _and_ the glass. “Eh, was it your doing that convinced him there was more to life than lady gardens?!”

“That’s not how it works,” Nicola says. She doesn’t know how to point out Faith’s insensitivity without it looking like she’s offended. She’s never been average in bed.

“I think everyone could benefit from being a bit more open minded,” Bernice says, dreamily. She has that sound to her voice, Nicola realises, the one that says she started too soon without any food in her. “Love is a spectrum.”

“Learn that on your counselling course, did you?” Faith says.

“No, I think she’s got a point,” Nicola says. “It is a spectrum. Sometimes I love Jimmy and sometimes I want to stick his head in the crusher.”

The three of them cackle but Jimmy’s too far away to hear. Aaron appears at Faith’s side, greeting the other two with a brief raise of his beer can. “Thanks for coming,” he says. It’s the politest she’s ever seen Aaron which is surprising really, considering that according to Bernice, Aaron and Robert were _in flagrante_ when everyone piled in for the party. 

“Ooh is it time for cuddles?” she says.

“With me or Seb?” he teases, wincing away when she tries pinching his cheeks.

“You can have him in a minute, he’s just doing the rounds.”

“I like what you’ve done with the place,” Nicola says. She struggles to picture the house how it was when it was hers. She struggles not to feel a little bit sad thinking back on all the memories, all the history burned to the ground. But, though she hates to admit it, they’ve done a nice job on it. Even if she can feel the testosterone beating out of every surface.

“Robert’s doing mostly.”

“Well, we know Robert,” Faith says. “Very handy. Isn’t that right, Nicola?”

Bernice titters and Nicola groans, making the situation obviously enough for Aaron to get it.

“Old news, Gran,” he says, tapping her on the arm and raising both eyebrows at Nicola.

How long has he known?

 

* * *

 

 

**Jessie and Marlon**

 

What Jessie knows about her landlords she could fit on the back of an envelope but it was kind of Marlon to invite her to the engagement party, even if meeting half of his family in the flat below did feel like being welcomed into a lion’s den. She has just about managed to learn their names (not the family tree, that seemed far too complicated for a new relationship), but socialising with all of them? In a confined space?

She starts with the easy questions while everyone is still setting up. “So Aaron is related to you how?”

She’d tries to keep her questions at the party minimal, but seeing as Robert has never got round to arranging those “welcome the Mill Cottage” landlord drinks, she has to start with the basics when it came to grilling Marlon.

Marlon is all wide-eyed and gesturing (he has the cutest thinking face she’d ever seen). “Second cousin’s uncle’s brother’s once removed…or something similar.” He beams. “He’s Chas’s kid, so I think that makes him my…first cousin once removed.”

“You learn something new every day,” Jessie says, linking hands with Marlon. Love was infectious. That is definitely true. “And how long have they been together?”

Marlon makes a puffing sound as he thinks about it. “Ages,” he says. “Well…I suppose it depends when you’re counting from. They er…” he leans in a bit and Jessie tips up onto her toes to hear. “They got together while Robert was married.”

“Oh right. To the woman that died in the crash?”

“Yeah,” Marlon says, grimacing with the awkwardness of it all. Jessie almost wishes she hadn’t asked.

“Pretty gorgeous though, isn’t he? Well, both of them actually.”

“One’s grumpy and the other one’s smarmy. Don’t know what they see in each other. Aaron’s family so I have to big him up, but really – _really?_ – have you ever held a conversation with him that was more than a downturned face and a grunt?”

“I haven’t had much to do with either of them really,” Jessie says. “Only in passing.” She’s heard a few doors slamming, a few arguments and on nights when they clearly have the place to themselves, noises that were a bit less antagonistic. The walls aren’t thin. They’re just loud.

“You should use this opportunity, while they’re both in the right mood, to speak to them about that damp patch in the bathroom.”

“Maybe later,” she says. “I don’t really want to spoil the mood. Look at them.”

She makes Marlon turn right around to look at the pair them. They are tucked away by the fireplace, just the two of them. It’s one of those moments with couples that look so intimate she almost feels embarrassed watching. But then again, it is their engagement party and she’s here to celebrate their love. Robert can’t stop looking at Aaron, his eyes are doing as much smiling as his mouth is. Aaron is playing with the bottom of his own t-shirt, looking coyly down at whatever Robert’s saying and then back up again into his eyes. Jessie wants to take a picture and hand it to them, tell them to hold onto it. Love like this changes you. It should be treasured.

Marlon tightens his grip on her hand. Maybe he feels it too.

 

* * *

 

 

**Liv and Gabby**

 

“I’m going to have to be quick,” Gabby says. “Mum is _cooking_ and _Daz_ is coming over for tea.”

Liv laughs into her screen, watching Gabby pull a puke face on Facetime. “Gross.”

“It wouldn’t be so bad if he didn’t keep trying to make conversation with me.”

“Total bore.”

“Mum told me the news. About Aaron and Robert.”

“Yeah,” Liv says, getting up off the bed to push the door closed. They probably can’t hear anyway, they’ve got some CD on while they open the presents. Someone bought them these ugly as fuck His and His towels. “It’s cool. I mean, I sort of thought they were married anyway.”

“Yeah? What’s that all about? You think they just want a big party or something?”

“Aaron reckons they want to do it right this time. Make it important and special. Make us a family.” She tries to keep her voice level, uninterested. Typically Liv. But she’d be lying if she said she didn’t care, that Aaron’s words hadn’t caught in her chest and stung a little – good pain, not bad. There were times last year where she felt so alone. Even though it was just her and Aaron, he wasn’t there, not really, not properly. And even when it had been Alex for a bit, it still wasn’t right. He didn’t take the piss and know how to make Aaron light up in the same way that made him look like he’d swallowed the whole solar system. Robert did. Robert made Aaron happy. It made him whole. It made their family feel like a proper family. It was as simple as that. And now he’s back again, it really feels like this is for keeps.

“Do you think they’re gonna ask you to be bridesmaid? In a big meringue?” Gabby is grinning, fluttering her eyelashes and faking a curtsey.

“Ugh no,” Liv says. “Aaron wants me to be his Best Woman. Best Person or whatever.”

“Oh cool. So you’re going to have to write a speech.”

“Yup pretty much. Embarrass the hell out of him – check, slag off Rob – check.”

After Aaron had asked her and Vic had gone home, Liv had helped them to tidy up. When Aaron was busy, Robert had given her half-a-hug, letting her pull away when she decided he’d gotten too soft. _Don’t try and butter me up_ , she’d said to him, _I’m gonna give Victoria a list of all your bad habits_. And he’d said _Oh really?_ Before the pair of them smiled and he thanked her for the party, for keeping it a surprise. _And he means it, you know. About it being about all of us. We love you, you know that._

And she does know. They don’t even have to say it and her insides shift with discomfort, she knows it. She sees it.

“Oh my god, Stag Do,” Gabby says, walking through her bedroom until she can find her tablet. “You need to start Googling things.” She taps on her screen for a little while and shows Liv the screen:

_gay stag do ideas_

Before scrolling herself, phone moved away, thankfully so that Liv doesn’t see a thing when she says “Woah, that’s a lot of penis blow-ups.” And then in the next breath. “You should make a Pinterest board.”

“Calm down, alright? This is Aaron we’re talking about. He’s only gonna want a couple of beers and some dumb games.”

Gabby doesn’t look up much between her swiping and scrolling. “What’s Robert doing for his?”

“Dunno, Victoria is in charge.”

“Well you need to make Aaron’s loads better. What about a theme?”

Gabby’s enthusiasm is interrupted by Bernice’s voice shouting up the stairs.

“Ugh,” she says. “Hell awaits. Later, yeah?”

Liv smirks and hangs up, starfishing across the bed. She feels tired but at the same time, light. Things are good for once.

She heads downstairs to get a drink but meets Robert on the landing outside her room.

“Alright?” he says. “You haven’t seen that photo of the three of us in Wales have you?”

“The one from the day where you had to pull over cos you felt carsick?” He grins.

“Yeah, that one.”

“I’ve got a copy of it on my phone.”

“I was looking for the printed one.” Robert shows her something from behind his back. It’s a white frame with five spaces for photos, the word ‘family’ in the middle and two cut-out hearts.

Liv pulls a face, but her heart’s beating faster seeing all the frames filled up. New photos, old. Photos of the three of them, the four of them.

“From Chas and Paddy,” he says. “Tacky I know but…”

“It’s nice.”

“Yeah, I thought so.” Robert smiles at it fondly. “We’re gonna put it in our room although we might have to move it if Chas comes around to check we’ve used it.”

“Do you want me to help you look for the photo?” she asks.

“Yeah, that’d be nice.”

 

* * *

 

 

**Aaron and Seb and Robert**

 

“Hey, hey, hey, hey. What’s all the fuss about, eh?” Aaron moves the dimmer switch on low so there’s a warm buzz to the light and scoops Seb out of his cot. The battery’s run out on the hanging mobile so it won’t play a tune or light up the cars anymore. Liv said their choice in mobile was playing right into the hands of gender stereotypes but Aaron said he didn’t care. Seb was going to grow up as a petrolhead, he didn’t have any choice in the matter. The second he was old enough to have one of those sit-in cars to wheel around, he was getting one. They’d get him in the scrapyard or the garage as soon as he stopped chewing everything on sight.

Robert had dropped off to sleep as soon as they’d gone upstairs. They’d had a fumble on the sofa beforehand, with the intention of picking up where the morning had been rudely interrupted, but the reality was they were happy enough to touch each other hard and spend the rest of the time kissing, smiling.

Aaron had put his hand around the back of Robert’s neck, just like they’d done on Valentine’s Day, back when it felt like his heart would never be full again. Back when he wanted the world to just disappear so it was just the two of them left.

“I know you’re worried,” he said. “And I know you feel guilty.” He interrupts before Robert has the chance to apologise. “And you don’t have to apologise.”

Robert’s smile was soft, dipped low, eyes warmer than they’d ever been. “I don’t deserve you.”

Aaron stroked his thumb over Robert’s jaw, the sunshine fecks of stubble that he didn’t have a chance to shave away after being sprung with the party. “You don’t deserve to keep going over and over the past. It’s all about the future now. Together.”

Seb’s snuffley in Aaron’s arms and Aaron puts his hand against his forehead to check for temperature. He’s warm, but it’s a hot night so there’s no surprise there. Aaron bounces him to the window, closer to the night time breeze and holds him to his chest. He’s found the pitch of his voice, that low throat grumble is the best thing for calming Seb down when he strops in the night. And there’s something satisfying about being the one who can get him back off to sleep the fastest and not have to listen to Robert singing on the baby monitor. He’s a decent enough singer, but when it comes to kids’ songs he never gets the words right.

“Is it cos your Dad was too tired to give you a bath tonight?” Aaron says, fingers on the downy hair at the back of Seb’s neck. Seb grizzles a bit more. “I know, mate. I know. He was too knackered to run me a bath n’all.”

Aaron shushes him, letting them both look out onto the village sky at night, the pinpoint stars mapped out over the hills.

“Did you have a nice time today?” Aaron asks him. “You had a nice cuddle with Great Granny Faith, I saw. You want to keep her on side. She’s gonna spoil you rotten when you’re older. And Nanna. She’s having a hard time right now. A really hard time.” Aaron can feel himself getting choked up, but he doesn’t want it to upset Seb, so he steels himself, walking over to tidy up some of the toys that had drooped on the shelf. “But when she’s better I know you’re gonna have the best time with her.”

Seb’s calmed down now, stopped crying, stopped sniffing. He pulls at Aaron’s t-shirt and then his hand settles on Aaron’s hand, fingers desperately stretching out to touch the night-time glimmer of Aaron’s engagement ring.

“Yeah, I know, that’s my special ring,” he says. “Your dad gave me that. And he’s got one too. Nice, isn’t it? Properly shiny. I know.” Aaron kisses the top of Seb’s head, feeling the weight of him get heavier in his arms, that slow snuggling drop-off, and carefully he lays him back down.

Robert’s awake when he gets back into bed, fingers pushed through the front of his hair and the covers pulled mostly down.

“What are you doing up?”

“Too hot.”

“Stick the fan on.”

“It’s too loud.”

Aaron huffs and bounds down back into bed. “Are you ever satisfied?”

Robert grins dopily. “You know I am.”

“Night then,” Aaron says, not snappily, just turning out the bedside lamp and sticking out his cheek for a goodnight kiss.

“Seb okay?”

“Fast out.”

The room goes quiet and Aaron thinks Robert’s gone straight off to sleep again, but then there’s a shift in the bed. Robert moves up close, putting his arm around Aaron’s middle and pulling him close. Aaron complains a little – a small, short grumble, it’s too hot for this – but he relents.

“You’re already an amazing dad to him,” Robert says, kissing the back of his neck. “You have been from the start.”

Aaron’s heart floods and for a moment he can’t breathe. For a moment it doesn’t feel real.

“You make me so happy,” Robert says.

You make me feel whole, Aaron thinks. But he doesn’t say it. He just feels it, filling up his chest.

“Love you,” Aaron says and feels his body pulled under into sleep.

 


End file.
